Once a week I walk from Central Station to Broadway, then up Glebe Point Road to my volunteer job at 2RPH. It is an easy stroll and mostly flat, but there are some busy intersections to negotiate. This is a very trafficked part of Sydney, with students heading to TAFE or University (Sydney and UTS) and cars going pretty much everywhere. So it pays to be careful.

Glebe Point Road was once a mecca of cafes and restaurants, and to a large extent it still is, with some establishments going back decades. Back in the 1980's it was one of those precincts (not unlike Kings Cross or Crow's Nest) where you could get a good cup of coffee and a slice of cake late into the evening.

But my first immersion into the Glebe area was back in 1979, when, as a budding drama student at UNSW, I auditioned for a production of The Winters Tale with The Rock's Players. The latter was a highly-regarded amateur theatre company which had the distinction of having quite a number of professional actors within its ranks. The Winter's Tale, which I secured a few bit-parts for(court official, shepherd, guard, chorus) had a number of these highly-experienced though out-of-work actors as cast members. So greenhorns like me had a fantastic opportunity to learn about the craft up close and personal and indeed we did, hanging on every word and paying close attention to technique. I think it was a very successful production, though my brothers tired of my constant Shakespearian rejoinders around the house.

I noticed a few weeks ago that our "playhouse", St James Hall in Bridge Street, has become a series of townhouses, with only the facade remaining. The cafe that I had a working stint in around the same time, Cafe Troppo, which had plastic pink flamingos suspended from the ceiling, has now become a Japanese restaurant. Maybe the food is better now, but it's certainly not as quirky.

I am glad of making the connection again. I am the same person as then, though now I can look back through the long lines of experience, reflecting differently upon that time and my part in it.

You won't be able to read this but this is a theatre review of the production in question that appeared in Honi Soit at the time. I had not seen it before now.